A Smile With Sad Eyes
by DeadEndKing44
Summary: Xiao, the adopted daughter of Po and Tigress, is a young panda who leads a seemingly happy life with her family at the Jade Palace. But darkness lies beneath that happiness. Xiao is troubled by unanswered questions about her mother and her disappearance years ago, and in her search for answers she must navigate a terrible tragedy that still haunts the members of the Jade Palace...
1. Chapter 1

A Smile with Sad Eyes

Chapter 1

It was evening in the Valley of Peace, and the nursery school was just letting out. A small army of tiny rabbits, ducks and pigs flooded out of the building, dissipating as each one ran towards their respective parents, and amidst this array of greetings, there emerged a small, very round anomaly.

A young, adorably chubby female panda ran out of the nursery, and looked around with an eager smile, that quickly turned into puzzlement. Her father was nowhere to be seen.

"Xiao!". The panda turned around. Her uncle, Master Monkey, was sat smiling on the rooftop of the building opposite the schoolyard. She giggled and ran to the bottom of the building, watched by some of the other kids with envious eyes.

"Hey Uncle Monkey! Where's Daddy?"

"Your father had some training to finish, so I offered to pick you up instead!"

"Oh" Xiao, short for Xiaoling, was a little disappointed. Daddy used to pick her up from school all the time, carrying her on his shoulders and usually ducking into Grandpa's noodle shop for quick snack, about 3 bowls of noodles each. Now he was _always_ training, kinda like… Still, it wasn't too bad. Especially on days when Uncle Monkey got to pick her up from school. Monkey swung down by his tail, scooped her up before fans swamped him, and put her on his back.

"Oof! You've been visiting your grandpa a lot lately haven't you?" Monkey said.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Ok, hold on tight!" Xiao wrapped her arms around his neck and hung down his back like a cape, looking over his shoulder.

"Go! Go! Go!" Both of them laughing, Monkey darted off, leaping and swinging and somersaulting over the buildings, making overly dramatic "hi-YA!" noises with each leap for her amusement. Xiao was laughing and whooping and screaming with joy. _This_ was why she loved it when Uncle Monkey picked her up from school.

Eventually, they landed at the entrance of the Jade Palace, where her uncles, Mantis and Crane, and aunt Viper greeted them.

"Hey Xiao! How was school?" Xiao slid off Monkey's back, dizzy from the ride home, and stumbled around giggling.

"That was fun! Again!"

"Monkey, did you take her over the rooftops again?"

"Maybe…" Viper sighed.

"Xiao. Xiao!" She felt Aunt Viper's tail turn her around to face her, and she tried to focus on her face. "Hey, eyes here! How was school?"

"Boring! Why do I have to keep going? It's not fair! I wanna learn kung fu!" She tried to do a spinning kick, but because she was still a little dizzy she fell over.

"You sound like me when I was your age." Mantis said, grinning.

Viper offered her tail and helped Xiao up.

"Because Xiao, even the Dragon Warrior had to go to school."

"Hmph!" Xiao pouted.

"Xiao, education is an import…"

"Is daddy in the training hall?" Viper sighed again. Xiao was clearly learning concentration from her father.

"Yes…"

They watched Xiao charge off. Despite her roundness, she was fast.

Xiao opened the door to the training hall and found her dad with Grandpa Shifu. Dad was showing him how to make the green lights come out of their hands again. Dad called it "chi".

"Daddy!" Po turned and beamed brightly at her. Shifu sighed at the prospect of another generation's worth of interruptions to look forward to.

"Hey! There's my favourite little dumpling!" Xiao leapt into his arms for a hug and giggled as he began tickling her. "How was your day?"

"Boring! Teacher never talks about anything fun! It's always numbers and how to make words!" Po laughed.

"Now Xiao, I know teachers are old and boring and cranky… no offence" he added, directed at Shifu. "But they're trying to make you into the best you you can be!"

"But numbers are dumb! I wanna be a Kung Fu master! I wanna kick butt!" At this she threw out a punch. "I don't need to know that 5+3 is 7!"

"Xaio," Shifu interjected. "Like I once told your father, "If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now." If you don't try new things you will never grow as person."

"So if I don't know numbers I won't grow up and I'll be small forever like Uncle Mantis?!" She let out a gasp of realisation "Is Uncle Mantis really dumb?!" Shifu slapped his head in his hand.

"Xiao," Po said, laughing. "Kung Fu isn't just about kicking butt. It requires a strong mind as well! If you have a strong mind, you'll be able to kick butt even harder! You want that?"

"Yeah!" Xiao pumped a fist in the air.

"So, try to think of school as additional training, because that's what it's for! Strengthening your mind! Now, I have to finish training with Master Shifu, so why don't you go "train" your mind on those numbers?"

"Okay dad! I'll start right now! You'll see! I'm gonna kick those numbers' butts! I'm gonna be a numbers _master_!" She exited the training hall. Po smiled after her, and Shifu watched his former student with pride.

"Nicely put."

"Yeah well, Tigress said she wanted her to have a good education…" His expression grew solemn and reflective. Shifu sighed, and moved to his side, staring after Xiao as she plodded down the steps.

"I know it's hard Po, but you are doing a _fantastic_ job raising that little girl."

Po put his smile back on.

"Thanks Shifu."

"Has she… asked about Tigress yet?"

"I think she wants to, but no."

"You're going to have to talk about it eventually. It's probably best that you start thinking about what to say." Po stared at the spot where Xiao had been.

"I know…" He shifted back to his casual, enthusiastic demeanour "Right, let's get back to it! Your chi isn't going to master itself." Shifu watched him, concerned and deeply pained.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xiao was sitting on the floor in the centre of her room, her numbers scroll spread out before her and two empty plates sitting next to her. Xiao had already lost interest in numbers, and her eyes began slowly drift around the room looking for distractions.

It was filled with empty bowls and kung fu memorabilia, much like her daddy said his had been. However, unlike daddy's old room, hers was neat and ordered. On top of her chest of drawers was a collection of action figurines daddy had carved for her, all of different Kung Fu masters. She had Master Ox and Master Rhino and Master Croc and Master Chicken (Xiao loved Master Chicken) and Grandpa Shifu and loads of others. However, on a special shelf, were four very old, well-kept figurines, the oldest in the collection, and one relatively new one, split into groups of two. On one side were figurines of Uncle Mantis and Uncle Crane, and on the other side were Uncle Monkey and Aunt Viper. And in the centre, pushed together, were the two figurines Xiao prized above all else: the ones of her parents, the legendary husband-and-wife protectors of the Valley of Peace, Master Po, the Dragon Warrior, and Master Tigress, creator of the Tiger style of Kung Fu. Whilst daddy's figurine was fairly old and had a few scratches, mommy's figurine was newer and fresher (daddy said he had given the first one to another panda before Xiao was born) and was the best painted one of the entire collection. Xiao hardly played with mommy's figurine. She was terrified of damaging it.

On one of her walls was a painting of all three of them, daddy with his arm around mommy, and mommy holding her so she was the focal point of the portrait, with daddy supporting her back with his other hand. She didn't remember this being done, but that was because she had only been about two. But it was still special to her. It was one of the very few pictures of them all together as a family.

As her eyes drifted back to the scrolls, Xiao was beginning to feel like her daddy had tricked her, because numbers sure didn't seem like real training. No master could put up with training _this_ dull. She had tried to make it fun by using dumplings to make the numbers, transferring them between the plates to make up the totals, but that had just made her hungry. Now she was full and sleepy. As she stared at the page, trying to stop her eyes from closing, she looked up and around at the training hall. It was larger than before, and blurrier. Suddenly, loud booms echoed out of nowhere and the room moved around on its own, as if Xiao was looking through someone else's eyes, to reveal a large, blurry figure attacking a training dummy with incredible force, making those grunting noises you make when you're trying really hard to hit something. Xaio saw a hand reach out and recognised it as her own, vaguely registering that it was much smaller than before. Somewhere inside of her she heard a small voice, _her_ voice, call out.

 _Mama_

The figure stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, staring at the dummy with its fists clenched. Suddenly its tail raised and it flew at the dummy with even more force, its grunting getting louder, until it was shouting. Xiao didn't like the shouting. It was so angry, but at the same time, it was really… sad. It was getting loud, _very_ loud, and _scary_. Suddenly, Xiao heard her own voice again, beginning to cry. At this the figure suddenly froze for a moment, then turned and looked straight at her. After another moment, the figure ran towards her, towering over her, and reached down with both hands. Xiao felt the giant and distantly familiar paws wrap around her middle, and she floated off the ground and towards the blurred figure's face, enough to vaguely make out the orange, white and black. Then she heard another voice, as if from a long way away…

 _Shhhhhh It's okay Xiao…_

Xiao started awake, still on the floor of her bedroom. She had been dreaming about mommy again. Xiao didn't like those dreams. The memories always made her sad. They reminded her that she didn't really know where her mommy was, or even _who_ she was. She had disappeared when Xiao was young, and the few memories she had of her were kind of blurry and most of them involved watching her train, and her family hardly talked about her. She always wanted to ask, but she felt that the others, particularly her dad, would get sad if she did. She could tell that they sometimes thought about mommy as well, because the feeling in the room always got really serious, or they would look sad for a moment before saying nothing was wrong, and Xiao didn't want to make them more upset. And yet, though she tried to hide it, it made _Xiao_ upset to have all these unanswered questions about mommy flying around inside her head and the memories of both the times she _was_ there, and the times that had a big empty space where she _should_ have been. The birthdays, the day trips, her first day of school, the drawings she'd bring home to show only one parent…

Xiao looked up at the family portrait. Even though they were all smiling in the picture, something about mommy's expression really bothered Xiao at times, like there was something missing from it, but she wasn't sure what it was…

She was startled when Uncle Mantis suddenly jumped in front of her.

"Hey kiddo! Has to see you studying with my own eyes to believe it! How's it going?"

"Really, really dull."

"Yeah I feel ya, Xiao. I hated school as well. All those long, boring classes (that and the other kids always tried to squish me), but mostly the _classes_! Lessons droning _on_ and _on_ …"

"Not helping Uncle Mantis..."

"Oh right, sorry. Anyway, it's dinner time! Your dad's made your favourite, tofu stir-fry!"

"Great…" Xiao said, absently. Mantis froze in concern. Xiao didn't seem interested in food, which meant something terrible might have happened.

"You ok? Usually by now your halfway down the hall!"

"Oh! Uh… yeah I'm fine!" Uncle Mantis' eyes narrowed as he studied her for a moment carefully, as if he could sense something was up. Part of her hoped he would keep asking, and then she could finally have an excuse to ask about…

"Ok!" He chirped brightly, frustratingly convinced, and playfully leapt onto her head. "Now, race you to the dining room!" He leapt off and charged down the hall.

Still mildly disappointed but not wanting to lose or (obviously) let her stir-fry get cold, Xiao ran after him.


End file.
